Taras Didych, head of the Dmytrivka community that includes Buzova, told Ukrainian television that the bodies were found in a ditch near a gas station. The death toll has not yet been confirmed. “Now we are coming back to life, but during the occupation we had our ‘hotspots’, many civilians died,” Didditch said on Saturday. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Rising civilian casualties have sparked a new wave of international condemnation, particularly of hundreds of deaths in the northwestern city of Bukha, which until last week was under Russian occupation. Ukraine and the West have accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Bukha. Russia has denied that it targeted civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarize and “demilitarize” its southern neighbor. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed it as an unfounded pretext for war. Russia has failed to occupy a major city since the invasion began on February 24, but Ukraine says Russia is concentrating its forces east for a major offensive and has urged people to leave. The Pentagon has said Russia is seeking to build a land corridor from Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and the eastern Donbass region, which is partly occupied by Moscow-backed separatists. Some cities are under heavy bombardment with tens of thousands of people unable to evacuate. “This is going to be a tough battle, we believe in this fight and our victory. We are ready to fight at the same time and look for diplomatic ways to end this war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech late Saturday. Zelensky said the use of force by Russia was “a catastrophe that will inevitably affect everyone.” “Russian aggression was not intended to be limited to Ukraine … the whole European venture is a target for Russia,” he said. “Russia can still afford to live in illusions and bring new military forces and new equipment to our land. And that means we need even more sanctions and even more weapons for our state.” Zelensky called on the West to impose a full embargo on Russian energy products and to supply Ukraine with more weapons. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday and promised armored vehicles and anti-ship missile systems, along with additional support for World Bank loans. Natalia Titova, 62, reacts as she points to her house, which was destroyed by Russian bombing in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on April 9, 2022. Natalia and her family lived in the basement, “When “The rocket hit our house, we ran on the road, it was very scary,” he said. REUTERS / Zohra Bensemra read more Britain will also tighten its sanctions on Russia and move away from the use of Russian hydrocarbons. Speaking to reporters with Zelensky, Johnson said support for Ukraine was intended to ensure that “he can never be intimidated again, never be blackmailed again, never threatened again in the same way.” Johnson was the last foreign leader to visit Kyiv following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the region. read more The visits are a sign that Kyiv is returning to some degree of normalcy. Some residents return and cafes and restaurants reopen. Italy has said it plans to reopen its embassy this month. NINE TRAINS But in the east, calls by Ukrainian officials for civilians to flee have become more urgent than a rocket attack on a train station in the Donetsk region of Kramatorsk on Friday, full of women, children and the elderly trying to get out. Ukrainian officials say more than 50 people have been killed. Russia has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once. The United States says it believes Russian forces were responsible. Reuters could not verify the details of the attack. Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksander Honcharenko said he expects only 50,000 to 60,000 of the city’s population of 220,000 to remain as people leave. Residents of the besieged Luhansk region will have nine trains on Sunday to leave, wrote the governor of the region, Serhiy Gaidai, in the Telegram messaging service. The British military intelligence said that Russia’s withdrawal from the capital’s area revealed “disproportionate” targeting of civilians. read more The Russian invasion forced about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people to flee their homes, turn cities into ruins, and kill or injure thousands. The European Union (EU) on Friday approved new sanctions against Russia, including bans on coal, wood, chemicals and other products. Oil and gas imports from Russia remain untouched. read more Ukraine has banned all imports from Russia, a key pre-war trading partner, with annual imports worth about $ 6 billion. “The enemy’s budget will not receive these funds, which will reduce its ability to finance the war,” Economy Minister Yulia Sviredenko wrote on her Facebook page. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report from Reuters’s offices. Writes Michael Perry. Edited by Robert Birsel Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
